Brentford have appointed rugby sevens guru Ben Ryan as their new Director of Elite Performance.
Ryan is best known for leading Fiji to Olympic gold when rugby sevens made its debut at Rio 2016, delivering the country’s first ever medal at the Games, and was also England head coach for six years before that.
The 50-year-old’s arrival in the newly created role is part of a restructure of the Bees’ leadership following the departure of co-Director of Football Rasmus Ankersen last year.
Ankersen had shared that position with the now sole Director of Football Phil Giles, who said: “When Rasmus left us in December 2021, I spent some time thinking about the future direction of the department and what skills and experiences I felt we needed moving forward. Director of Elite Performance is a role I think will help us reach even higher levels of performance across both players and staff. After a thorough recruitment process, Ben emerged as the outstanding candidate.
“He brings huge experience of how to reach elite level across a range of sports and has a coaching background which will help him work effectively with Thomas [Frank]. He is also a Brentford fan, so already understands the Club, knows what we’ve achieved already, and what we want to achieve together in future.”
Ryan is set to start in the post on Tuesday as the Bees begin preseason ahead of their second campaign in the top flight.
